Jacques Offenbach

La Belle Hélène

Offenbach (1819 - 1880), who was born in Germany, moved to Paris when he was a teenage boy and remained there for much of his life. He became especially famous as a composer of numerous operettas. and of one famous opera: Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann). His operettas (or 'musiquettes') were often based on comical, or satirical librettos. He makes fun of Parisian daily life, dignitaries, the military, the pretentiousness of the Grand Opéra, and so on. In that respect, Offenbach's operettas are not really comparable with those of his German-speaking contemporaries, for example, Franz Lehár and Johann Strauss the Younger. Musically speaking, we could call Offenbach's operettas lively, funny, melodious and catchy. For La Belle Hélène , Offenbach drew from Greek mythology. The story is based on that of Helen of Troy, but is set in France, halfway through the 19th century; it has been turned into a satire on the élite of that time. The overture to La Belle Hélène was (and still is) very successful. Offenbach combined a number of arias and choruses from the operetta to give a taste of what is to follow. Many overtures which follow this form lack unity and structure. However, in this case the composition has been well thought-out.